Even as enrollment plummets at Santa Barbara's regular elementary schools, numbers are up at the district's three public charter schools, where test scores range from exemplary to poor.
While the 13-school district appears to have lost about 290 students since last fall -- the largest drop in a quarter century -- the charter schools have posted a net gain of about 50 kids.
The trend is happening despite the bad press that has buffeted charter schools, from federal data indicating that performance is lagging at many of them, to the state-mandated closure of 60 California Charter Academy campuses.
Posted by gandlwoods at October 3, 2004 07:40 AM